


Half-Priced Chocolate Eve

by NancyBrown



Series: Lanternverse [4]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 01:49:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3363275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NancyBrown/pseuds/NancyBrown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the night before Half-Priced Chocolate Day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Half-Priced Chocolate Eve

**Author's Note:**

> Don't even ask. If you're looking for a less sickly-sweet V-Day fic, please check out [this one](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3163880) instead.

All the lights were off when Jack unlocked the door and let himself inside. Only the faintest glow from upstairs suggested any lamps at all left on, and that was odd because it was only nine o'clock. He'd been working late nights most of the week. Ianto had made an effort to leave more or less on time, except on Monday, but Monday had been Hell, very nearly literally.

Still, dark. Jack shrugged off his coat and stepped out of his boots, snapping on a light as he did. Dinner had long since been put away. The airtight plastic container with the remains of chicken and noodles still held the last of the warmth from the cooling meal. A smaller container with the bottom half of a can of spaghetti hoops sat beside it, gone stone cold. Jack took the chicken and noodles, placed it into the microwave, then went up the steps while his food reheated.

From the small bedroom at the far end of the hallway, he could see light spilling out onto the wood floor. What was she still doing awake? As he edged down the hallway, he heard Theia giggle.

Ianto said, in a sonorous voice: "It's Half-Priced Chocolate Eve, and all the babies..."

"And all the mamas and mummies and the daddies and the papas!"

"And who else?"

"The nans and the grans and the aunties and the uncles and the kids with sore thumbs!"

"And the kittens and the … ?"

"Pterodactyls!"

Jack snuck to the door and peeked in.

Ianto had a three-ring binder with hole-punched sheets of paper featuring the very best of last year's clip art. He turned another page. "And all the good children, and even the bad, they all go to bed early, and dream of the sticky fingers they'll lick on Half-Priced Chocolate Day."

Theia joined in, with her uneven warble. Her eyes followed the words as Ianto pointed to them but each time they'd checked, she still hadn't grasped how the letters formed the words. "On Half-Priced Chocolate Day, the streets will run with sugar, and the children will buzz like bees, and all the shops will overflow with sweets." She made huge hand motions with the words.

"But tonight we sleep, and tonight we dream sweet dreams, on Half-Priced Chocolate Eve." He closed the book and saw Jack just as he leaned in for a kiss.

"I need one of those," Jack said, coming into Theia's room and placing his lips fondly on her hair.

"You missed the story," she said, but when Jack tapped his cheek she gave him a loud smacking kiss there.

"Daddy can read it to me later." He helped tuck her in under the pony-themed duvet. "Love you. Night night."

"Night night."

He waited until they were back downstairs and the binder had been placed on the bookshelf, the giant pink highlighter heart on the front filled with the words "Half-Priced Chocolate Eve" in Ianto's best Sharpie printing.

"When did you come up with this?"

"Around six when I realised you weren't making it home tonight. We read it together five times. Did you eat?"

"Not yet." Jack opened the microwave, stirred the food, and put it back in for another minute. Ianto took the pitcher of ice water from the refrigerator and poured him a glass unasked. Jack watched him. "Thanks for saving me some. Am I in trouble?"

"No?" Ianto looked confused.

"It's Half-Priced Chocolate Eve, and I didn't get you a card."

"I didn't get you one, either," Ianto admitted, sitting down. "I didn't even consider what day it was until Gwen asked to dodge out early." Jack had noticed the date earlier when signing more forms but felt it best not to mention. After all, despite noticing, he'd still done nothing.

The microwave beeped. Jack removed his plastic container and tucked in, not bothering to spoon the food onto a plate. A long, long time had passed since lunch. He'd been the last to leave, with their colleagues popping out one by one to spend the evening with spouses, or in Lois's case, her latest attempt in "I can have a normal relationship, damn it."

Perhaps this was the next stage in domesticity. First, the intense romance where you can't get enough of touching the other. Next, the sweet friendship where you do mad things like purchase a house in a nice area with good schools. Finally, the warm banked coals where you stop bothering with flowers and chocolates at all, and settle into the next several dreary decades with the person you've signed your life away with. Jack frowned over a bite of chicken. For all of his many, many relationships, only a handful had lasted more than a year or two. This had gone on, with breaks and timeloops in between, for at least seven. New waters.

"You seem pensive," Ianto said. "Did I miss something after I left? Merthyr Tydfil didn't fall into an abyss again? You know, I honestly think we should convince the Assembly to pick up the whole village and move it elsewhere."

"No," Jack said before he could continue. Lately Ianto had become convinced something unspeakable from the dawn of time was lurking under those quaint streets. "Just thinking. How was Theia's day?"

"Fine. No accidents today, apparently. She earned three stickers and the teachers gave everyone a large sack of lollies."

Jack pictured this. "Oh." There were times he suspected Theia's nursery school teachers of hating their students' parents.

"I did get most of the sticky out of her hair in the bath."

"Just in time for Half-Priced Chocolate Day."

"It's the best day of the year," Ianto said, possibly reciting from his own hastily-written book.

"Should we have done anything with her for Valentine's Day? We didn't even send her to school with those cards the kids do." He had vague memories of these from Alice's childhood: cheap cardboard printed with cartoon characters making terrible puns. She'd always set aside one for her dad, which had made Lucia grumble. The little cards stopped after a while, and only in recent years had Alice lost the hurt, angry expression she'd picked up from her mum every time she saw Jack.

"I don't think she minds. As long as she has a constant supply of sweets, she's not going to notice what event they're supposed to be celebrating."

"What about you?"

"I buy my own sweets, and keep up a supply for everyone else. I didn't think you wanted an extra box as long as I kept the dish on your desk full." Which was, Jack knew, also stocked with the chocolates Ianto liked. Sweets every day meant a day for sweets wasn't as special. But it also meant they never wanted for sweets.

Of course it was nice to have a day set aside to spend with your lover. Jack spent every day and every night with his, for over seven years now and many more stretching in front of them. While that meant no one day with Ianto was more special than the rest, it also meant every day was.

Jack scraped the plastic for the last bite, then took it to the sink to soak, which was his way of avoiding loading the dishwasher. "What do you say, tomorrow we take Theia and hit the shops early? Half-Priced Chocolate Day only comes once a year."

"Twice. Don't forget the first of November."

"Fine. Twice a year. Do you want to go out tomorrow and celebrate by getting our kid high on sugar?"

"Only if you agree to clean her up when she gets sick." He glanced at the soaking dish significantly until Jack relented and placed it into the dishwasher. He moved to the sitting room and picked up the remote control, but Jack took his hand.

"She's asleep by now. Do you want to go build up an appetite for all that chocolate we're buying tomorrow?" He threw in one of his older charming grins, the one which he'd used seven years ago when trying to convince his nervous new admin to loosen up and explore new worlds.

"That sounds ... sweet."

Jack's groan chased him up the stairs.

***  
The End  
***


End file.
